The Golden County Magistrate

The ministers left.

They were all wondering in their hearts. His Majesty had been talking for a long time, but he never said who the county magistrate was. It was really strange.

"A mere county magistrate is so important to the emperor. Does Minister Yu know who this county magistrate is?"

On the corridor leading out of the palace, Huang Liangge spoke lightly.

If there was one person among several people who could guess who His Majesty was talking about, it would be Minister Yu Du.

Yu Du shook his head and sighed, "Don't blame me, Prime Minister Huang. I really don't know who he is, but Your Majesty has only inspected Longzhou. I think this county magistrate should be an official of Longzhou."

Cheng Xinyuan murmured, "Longzhou! I haven't heard of any county magistrate who is very famous."

Han Zhaokun sighed, "Oh, don't guess. Who can figure out Your Majesty's thoughts? She doesn't say it now because she doesn't want us to contact this person for the time being."

Huang Liangge suddenly realized and replied, "What Lord Han said is right. I am anxious."

He secretly cursed himself in his heart. Since the end of the war, he has become more and more anxious, and has caused Your Majesty's dissatisfaction several times.

If this continues, it is still unclear whether the official position of Wenchangtai Zuo Pushe can be kept.

Tang Yun left He Jinyao, the Minister of Land in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, alone. Without other old ministers present, Tang Yun didn't care about so many rules and asked He Jinyao to sit in front of him.

If it were someone else, they would definitely not dare to sit at the same table with the emperor.

He Jinyao was different.

He had always been a pragmatist, and he never paid much attention to red tape and court rules.

He would do whatever His Majesty asked him to do.

"Your Majesty, how much of what you just said is true and how much of it is false?"

He Jinyao spoke first. Having been an official for so many years and controlling the money and grain of the entire Great Zhou, he was naturally not a stupid person.

In fact, not only He Jinyao, but also Huang Liangge and others who had just left, knew very well in their hearts that His Majesty's performance just now was nothing more than a means to get several important officials to express their agreement with the court's business.

Tang Yun's words were both true and false, and the reactions of these officials were also true and false.

Since His Majesty left him alone, he must want him to be responsible for this matter.

He can be responsible, which is the responsibility of the Minister of Land, but he must know the truth of the matter.

"Half true, half false." Tang Yun said everything, "The county magistrate is true, the sugar is true, and the court needs to run a business and make up for the deficit as soon as possible."

He Jinyao opened his mouth slightly and sighed, "The court is lucky to have such a capable person. In this case, can your majesty transfer this person to the Ministry of Revenue? With such ability, why let him waste time as a county magistrate."

Tang Yun smiled bitterly, a little helpless, "How could I not know that such a talent would be most suitable to be placed in the Ministry of Revenue. Unfortunately, this person has no interest in promotion."

"Ah!" He Jinyao was slightly surprised, "It's a pity!"

There are indeed people in this world who don't want to be officials, but most of those people are talented and literary masters who are arrogant, and most of them are of noble birth. Even if they don't become officials, they don't lack food and drink. Without the constraints of officialdom, they can concentrate on learning.

But the person your majesty is talking about is obviously not among them.

Tang Yun nodded in agreement, "This man's name is Chen Yan, he is the magistrate of Qingshan County. He is in his early twenties, but he manages Qingshan County in an orderly manner. Moreover, the wars over the years have not had any impact on Qingshan County at all."

He Jinyao was startled and began to think about the three words Qingshan County in his mind.

As an official appointed by the court, he found that he was a little unfamiliar with the three words Qingshan County, and he didn't know where Qingshan County was.

This was a bit embarrassing. After all, he was an official of the Ministry of Revenue. It was really unreasonable for him not to know one of the counties in Da Zhou.

Tang Yun noticed He Jinyao's strangeness, frowned, and asked: "What? Is there a problem with Qingshan County's taxes?"

He Jinyao shook his head, suddenly remembered something, and asked hurriedly: "After several years of war, there was no impact, and it was still in order?"

"It should be much more prosperous and wealthy than the previous Qingshan County." Tang Yun replied uncertainly. After all, she had never been to the previous Qingshan County in person, but she only knew that there was such a county town in the deep mountains and old forests of Longzhou.

He Jinyao immediately realized, "If I am not mistaken, this place should be in Longzhou."

Before Tang Yun spoke, He Jinyao continued, "After several years of war, the main battlefield in the past two years has been in Longzhou, but Longzhou's taxes have not dropped significantly in the past two years. I was quite suspicious about this before, and I also talked about it with your majesty. Now it seems that it is mostly because of Qingshan County."

Tang Yun then remembered that He Jinyao did mention the taxation of Longzhou to her.But at that time, she was so focused on the war that she didn't care about this matter.

The Ministry of Revenue collected taxes from all over the country, all by the prefectures.

As long as the total amount was not bad, they would basically not ask, and there was no manpower to investigate carefully.

"Humph, in this case, the Longzhou Prefecture is suspected of dereliction of duty. There are abnormalities in the tax silver under its jurisdiction, but it didn't know about it?"

Tang Yun was a little annoyed. If the Longzhou Prefecture had reported the abnormal taxation in Qingshan County earlier, maybe she could have discovered Chen Yan earlier.

He Jinyao shook his head and smiled bitterly: "The Longzhou prefecture governor focused all his energy on the war, and he rarely asked about taxation. I guess his subordinates reported it directly to the Ministry of Revenue after calculating the numbers."

Tang Yun thought about it and felt that it was right. At that time, the rebels had fought in Longzhou and headed straight for Luodu. How could the local chief have the energy to care about taxation?

"Governing a place, he was able to remain unaffected by the war. This county magistrate has some ability." He Jinyao sighed.

"He is indeed talented, but his character needs to be examined." Tang Yun replied, "This man is keen on doing business and loves money the most. In order not to be promoted, he even deliberately hid Qingshan County. He could have built the main road out of the county and directly to the imperial court, but he only built half of it. It's really hateful."

Tang Yun specially asked Fengling Guards to guard Qingshan County and continue to investigate Qingshan County. The content of the investigation was reported back at any time.

Tang Yun felt very angry when she saw a lot of the content of the investigation.

But she had no way to deal with it.

Chen Yan was not low-key because of the empress's reign, nor because he was dissatisfied with the Great Zhou. He just wanted to be low-key. She couldn't punish Chen Yan for such a thing, right?

He Jinyao thought it was interesting, "This county magistrate is a wonderful person."

Perhaps because he was a little thirsty, He Jinyao lifted the lid of the teapot and saw that there was indeed tea inside, so he poured himself a cup and drank it at random.

Since the tea was served, several ministers didn't care and no one drank it.

Everyone knows that tea should be drunk while it is hot, but His Majesty did not prepare a stove for boiling tea for them, nor did he prepare any seasoning.

If he was not really thirsty, He Jinyao would not want to drink this stuff.

But after drinking it, his face changed.